U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew and Verizon Discuss Cybersecurity for Financial Institutions
On Tuesday, United States Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew visited Verizon's campus in Ashburn, Va. to highlight the importance of cybersecurity to financial institutions. Meeting with Verizon's cybersecurity experts in the technology company's newly renovated Executive Briefing Center, Secretary Lew received a first-hand look at Verizon's state-of-the-art Security Operations Center, global IP Network Operations Center and [enterprise technology] Solutions Center all housed within the Ashburn building. The visit also included a visit to a Verizon data center. Secretary Lew's visit occurred in advance of his keynote remarks on cybersecurity and the U.S. financial sector at CNBC's and Institutional Investor's Delivering Alpha conference on Wednesday – a who's who of the investor and hedge fund community. The Secretary noted his visit to Verizon in his prepared remarks.
"I visited a Verizon network operation center in Virginia yesterday, and saw firsthand how cyber intruders are trying to infiltrate these vital systems and what Verizon is doing to combat this threat. Telecommunications companies are taking important steps to protect vital infrastructure and improve cyber safeguards. It is essential that all critical third parties have protections for both physical infrastructure and cyber security."
Bryan Sartin, director of RISK at Verizon Enterprise Solutions weighs in.
"It used to be that security, especially in the finance sector, was a chief information security officer function and these days it's no longer a backburner thing that we also do, it's no longer a CIO function anymore, [instead] it's a CEO function."
According to the Verizon 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report, less than 25 percent of data breaches were discovered by victims in only days or less. Sartin says that it takes victims seven months on average to discover that they've been breached after the point of entry – a "cyber innovation gap" he says which demonstrates that criminals are becoming even more sophisticated when compared to the victim's ability to detect that they have been compromised in a timely manner. He emphasizes that mitigating data breaches starts with superior intelligence.
"It's no longer about one size fits all. Intelligence-driven security uses a multilayer approach to protect customers against attacks by understanding, integrating and applying insights from global threat and attack patterns."
Sartin says that a more intelligent driven security approach helps victims
- Prepare: know how to protect critical data, understand vulnerabilities, minimize their attack surface and ensure control and compliance
- Recognize: monitor/analyze attacks and break chains early
- Respond: immediate and effective responses are required to minimize the impact of a breach
For more on Sartin's insights on the global security threat landscape facing financial institutions, watch the video below.
